On July 30, 2025, the final of the 3rd China-ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With the theme of "Innovative Cooperation, Achieving Dreams", the competition focused on the fields of "digital economy" and "green low-carbon technology", attracting a total of 329 projects from 23 countries and regions around the world to compete. The team of Professors Zhang Chaoyang and Zhu Hao from our institute stood out in the fierce competition and won the third prize in the group competition with their innovative project "High-Efficient and Low - Cost Fabrication of Copper Grid Electrodes in Solar Cells via Laser-Induced Localized Electrodeposition Technology".

The China - ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, co - hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the ASEAN Secretariat, aims to thoroughly implement the important speech spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Commemoration Summit of the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of Dialogue Relations between China and ASEAN, and further promote the exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. On September 16, 2025, the award-giving ceremony of the competition was grandly held in Nanning, Guangxi. The participating team of our institute stepped onto the stage as the award-winning representative of this competition to receive the award.

China Media Group International Online interviewed Professor Zhu Hao. He introduced that the participating project directly addressed the industry pain point of "high-cost conductive silver paste" in current solar cell manufacturing. It innovatively proposed the core of "replacing silver with copper" and adopted the laser-induced localized electrodeposition technology, which can directly deposit high-performance copper grid lines on the surface of silicon wafers without a mask. This technology is expected to reduce the non-silicon cost of solar cells by 10% to 20%, having significant cost advantages and broad market application prospects.

By participating in the China-ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, it has provided a high - high-specification international display and docking platform for the team's scientific research achievements. The team has had in-depth exchanges with experts, enterprises, and investors from China and ASEAN countries, which can effectively promote the industry - university - research collaboration of the technology and the R&D process of special equipment, and accelerate its industrial application. The team also hopes to take this opportunity to promote this innovative technology to more ASEAN countries, serve the regional clean energy development with scientific and technological strength, and contribute wisdom to the global green and low-carbon transformation.